Bisexuality

Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and
females, or to more than one sex or gender. It may also be defined as romantic or sexual attraction
to people of any sex or gender identity, which is also known as pansexuality.

The term bisexuality is mainly used in the context of human attraction to denote romantic or sexual
feelings toward both men and women, and the concept is one of the three main classifications of
sexual orientation along with heterosexuality and homosexuality, all of which exist on the
heterosexual–homosexual continuum. A bisexual identity does not necessarily equate to equal sexual
attraction to both sexes; commonly, people who have a distinct but not exclusive sexual preference
for one sex over the other also identify themselves as bisexual.

Scientists do not know the exact cause of sexual orientation, but they theorize that it is caused by a
complex interplay of genetic, hormonal, and environmental influences, and do not view it as a
choice.Although no single theory on the cause of sexual orientation has yet gained widespread
support, scientists favor biologically-based theories. There is considerably more evidence supporting
nonsocial, biological causes of sexual orientation than social ones, especially for males.

Bisexuality has been observed in various human societies and elsewhere in the animal kingdom
throughout recorded history. The term bisexuality, however, like the terms hetero- and
homosexuality, was coined in the 19th century.

Sexual orientation, identity, and behavior

Main articles: Sexual orientation, Sexual identity, and Human sexual activity

Bisexuality is romantic or sexual attraction to both males and females. The American Psychological
Association states that "sexual orientation falls along a continuum. In other words, someone does
not have to be exclusively homosexual or heterosexual, but can feel varying degrees of both. Sexual
orientation develops across a person's lifetime–different people realize at different points in their
lives that they are heterosexual, bisexual or homosexual."

Sexual attraction, behavior, and identity may also be incongruent, as sexual attraction or behavior
may not necessarily be consistent with identity. Some individuals identify themselves as
heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual without having had any sexual experience. Others have had
homosexual experiences but do not consider themselves to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual.Likewise, self-
identified gay or lesbian individuals may occasionally sexually interact with members of the opposite
sex but do not identify as bisexual. The terms queer, polysexual, heteroflexible, homoflexible, men
who have sex with men and women who have sex with women may also be used to describe sexual
identity or identify sexual behavior.

Some sources state that bisexuality encompasses romantic or sexual attraction to all gender
identities or that it is romantic or sexual attraction to a person irrespective of that person's biological
sex or gender, equating it to or rendering it interchangeable with pansexuality. The concept of
pansexuality deliberately rejects the gender binary, the "notion of two genders and indeed of specific
sexual orientations", as pansexual people are open to relationships with people who do not identify
as strictly men or women. Sometimes the phrase "bisexual umbrella" is used to describe any
nonmonosexual behaviors, attractions, and identities, usually for purposes of collective action and
challenging monosexist cultural assumptions.

The bisexual activist Robyn Ochs defines bisexuality as "the potential to be attracted—romantically
and/or sexually—to people of more than one sex and/or gender, not necessarily at the same time,
not necessarily in the same way, and not necessarily to the same degree."

According to Rosario, Schrimshaw, Hunter, Braun (2006):

...the development of a lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) sexual identity is a complex and often
difficult process. Unlike members of other minority groups (e.g., ethnic and racial minorities), most
LGB individuals are not raised in a community of similar others from whom they learn about their
identity and who reinforce and support that identity. Rather, LGB individuals are often raised in
communities that are either ignorant of or openly hostile toward homosexuality.

Bisexuality as a transitional identity has also been examined. In a longitudinal study about sexual
identity development among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) youths, Rosario et al. "found evidence
of both considerable consistency and change in LGB sexual identity over time". Youths who had
identified as both gay/lesbian and bisexual prior to baseline were approximately three times more
likely to identify as gay/lesbian than as bisexual at subsequent assessments. Of youths who had
identified only as bisexual at earlier assessments, 60 to 70 percent continued to thus identify, while
approximately 30 to 40 percent assumed a gay/lesbian identity over time. Rosario et al. suggested
that "although there were youths who consistently self-identified as bisexual throughout the study,
for other youths, a bisexual identity served as a transitional identity to a subsequent gay/lesbian
identity."
By contrast, a longitudinal study by Lisa M. Diamond, which followed women identifying as lesbian,
bisexual, or unlabeled, found that "more women adopted bisexual/unlabeled identities than
relinquished these identities," over a ten-year period. The study also found that "bisexual/unlabeled
women had stable overall distributions of same-sex/other-sex attractions."Diamond has also studied
male bisexuality, noting that survey research found "almost as many men transitioned at some point
from a gay identity to a bisexual, queer or unlabeled one, as did from a bisexual identity to a gay
identity."